With preparations underway for the first customer installation of its mass production system in early 2019, Desktop Metal announced several major advancements and expanded capabilities to the Production System™.

The installation of the first Production System is scheduled for Q1 2019 to a Fortune 500 company among Desktop Metal’s early Pioneer customers. Additional customer installations at major automotive, heavy duty and leading metal parts manufacturers will follow throughout 2019, with broad availability in 2020.

Since it was first introduced, advancements to the technology and capacity of the Production System have expanded to include:

Accelerated printing speeds to 12,000 cm³ per hour

The flagship configuration now features an expanded build volume of 750 x 330 x 250 mm

Two full-width print bars, advanced powder spreaders and anti-ballistic system that work to spread powder and print in a single quick pass across the build area

Use of 32,768 piezo inkjet nozzles

First and only binder jet system with an industrial inert environment, including gas recycling and solvent recovery, to safely print reactive metals

Capability to print more than 60 kilograms of metal parts per hour.

The Production System is capable of mass customizing batches of generative designed gears at varying amounts with mass production efficiency. Instead of needing to post-process each part using laser or electrochemical etching, ink marking, or dot peening, parts can now be printed with serial numbers – or other customization detail – in place, rending an entire build volume of unique parts with no need for post processing.

“We are excited to provide the international engineering and design community with deeper insights into the power of the Production System with updated innovations and an extensive display of metal parts to be publicly shown for the first time this week,” said Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder of Desktop Metal. “As we continue to expand our list of global customers and partners, companies that are turning to the game-changing technology available with the Production System, and installations set to begin rolling out in the coming months, Desktop Metal is looking to further shift the industry beyond prototyping to now include full scale metal manufacturing.”